As is our tradition, The Open at Austin is posting our 2023 wrap up in November so we’ve had a few months to reflect on last March’s event. First of all, it’s been a pleasant surprise running into so many local disc golfers at various courses over the last seven months who staffed at the 2023 Open at Austin at Harvey Penick Golf Campus. Whether you staffed four months or three days or were a UDisc stat keeper for just a couple of hours we appreciate and thank you for your effort. We hope you will return as a staff member or as a spectator for the 2024 event March 15-17 which we expect to be even bigger and better. 

We are actively adding new holes to the wooded portions of the property and pursuing additional spectator parking as well as reimagining the basic site plan to eliminate player shuttling and much shorter walks for spectators to the staring hole. We think these changes will produce a better overall experience for both players and the gallery and simplify staffing and crowd control and other logistics for the directors. 

Now, back to 2023.

Congrats to Paige Pierce and Gannon Buhr for taking title of The Open at Austin Champion Disc Golfer of the Year for 2023 in their respective divisions.

In FPO, Paige threw two round’s rated over 1000 on her way to a 2 throw victory over Catrina Allen who also tossed two rounds over 1000. Jessica Weese and Missy Gannon completed the podium finishes 3 throws behind Paige. There were 10 rounds of 1000 or better tossed in the FPO division. 

We hope the recently married Paige Pierce recovers well from her leg injury in Europe this summer and returns to competition before the The Open rolls around again this upcoming March.

In MPO, Gannon came from from the chase card in the final round to finish 2 throws ahead of Simon Lizotte with James Proctor and Calvin Heimburg tied in the bronze position 3 strokes back.

Since Austin, Gannon has gone on to have a banner year with nearly $90k in winnings. We look forward to having Gannon back in 2024 and this time he won’t have to sprint a half mile for his final round tee time. Or maybe that forced “warm up” helped him pull out the victory? We will never know since no player shuttles are necessary this March as we switch to our new site plan.

Paige and Gannon are both first-time winners of The Open Disc Golf Championship held at beautiful Harvey Penick Golf Campus. They join runners up Simon (2017) and Catrina (5x) as champs in this annual event.

It was quite an experience working with the Disc Golf Pro Tour for the third consecutive year as The Open DGC moved from Silver Series event to Elite level and from Belton to Austin. We thank the DGPT and Disc Golf Network for their advice, consultation and great video presentations that have cumulatively received millions of views millions. A special thanks goes to Evan Shper, DGPT Venue Development Manager for spending extended time in Austin helping to design and prepare the final version of the 2023 course at Harvey Penick.

We’d also like to recognize again our 2023 presenting sponsor, Lone Star Disc. The Open DGC appreciates all the effort and support Terry Dillard and family provided through their team of Sheldon Jefferson, Synjin Dillard, Take Shintaku, and Josh Hofstra. The Lone Star Disc team’s contributions to this event were immeasurable and included direct assistance, headed up by Lone Star Team Member, Vinnie Miller, with logistics like parking lot management, vendor setup and organizing of the Saturday Party & FlyMart. Vinnie was most instrumental in recruiting a large group, including many Lone Star team members, to be UDisc stat keepers. And congratulations to Vinnie for being elected Texas South PDGA Representative this past summer. You can check out Lone Star’s fine line of discs and apparel here: https://www.lonestardiscs.com/

 Along with Lone Star Disc we had a number of other sponsors helping to make sure the event had sufficient funding. Most notably, Texas Fire Systems who were a major sponsor and facilitated the purchase our artificial turf used for the tee pads. What does TFS do, you ask? You can find out here: https://www.tsfsllc.com/

Lone Star Disc was the primary disc vendor with over 20 other vendors set up selling al kinds of disc golf related items from carts to clothing. Casa Garcia’s was the primary food vendor and they did not disappoint, hustling for three days straight to keep up with the line of hungry disc golf fans enjoying their stellar Mexican cuisine. 

A full list of sponsors and vendors can be found here. We thank each and every one of them no matter how large or small their contribution to bringing the pro tour to Austin. 

Craftsmen and artists also stepped up for the The Open in 2023. Local disc golfer and organizer of the annual Save Our soldiers event, BZ Strick, built some sweet benches with Bob Breeze assisting the final assembly onsite. Unfortunately, post event, several of the benches went missing before we could collect them all. The event reimbursed BZ for materials but he and Bob had a lot of labor time gone with the wind along with the benches. If anyone has any information regarding recovering the benches please notify BZ Strick. 

The custom leather headbands for the Stetson trophy hats were crafted by Zacariah Leathercraft. We can’t wait to see Zachariah’s leatherwork for 2024. Jason Carter and Wicked Signs leant their expertise to production of our signs, banners and basket wraps and we have enjoyed their contribution to project for the last three years. Grant Wise, in from Hawaii, came on board last minute as our official photographer. Some of his photos can be seen in this post as well in Disc Golfer Magazine. As former Ultimate players, Grant and I were both involved in producing The Ultimate Players Association Newsletter in the late 1980’s and it was great reconnecting with him after 30+ years as we promote and record another disc sport. 

We are especially thankful for our course prep volunteers who put in several hundred hours getting the track ready to meet DGPT expectations for a tight competition, positive fan experience and large galleries. Most notably these pre-event volunteers included Alice, Jackson and Ben Cates, along with Jim Deeken, David Bethke, Vinnie Miller, Bob Breeze, Jim Hudson and a couple visits from the Austin 55+ crew. Volunteer tasks included everything from clearing vines, thorns and scraplings to building tee boxes and lots more in between. Our workdays began three months before the event were generally Tuesdays and Thursdays with all the above mentioned showing up for multiple sessions along with a day or two put in by n numerous other occasional helpers. Workdays for the 2024 event will be Wednesdays and Friday and begin early December. To volunteer with course prep please contact our course prep manager, David Bethke at bethkedavid@gmail.com or watch our Facebook page, The Open at Austin Disc Golf Championship.

As a result of the February ice storm, one big aspect of getting the course ready was upper branch tree work. A special thanks goes out to Clyde Junior Smith and Yankee Mike for climbing the ladders and donning the safety straps to deal with numerous hanging branches Much of that work had to be done the week of the event after the DGPT safety inspector pointed out several potential problem areas near player and spectator areas. A lot of new tree work needed to be done as a result of the untimely ice storm. The trees were worked on right up until the event and we can thank Seth and Andrew from the DGPT and Juan, Josh and Melvin form the Harvey Penick crew for contributing to that important work. Along with our event crew of Vinnie, Clyde and Yankee Mike, they all did their best to make venue as free as possible of broken and hanging branches.

The weekend of the event saw a daily staff of over 120 volunteers including spotters, gallery control, scoring administrators and UDisc stat keepers descend on Harvey Penick Golf Campus. A super special thank you goes to the following clubs who were patiently on duty at various sections of the course throughout the competition: Waterloo DGC, Austin 55+, Rise Above Nomads, Bart DGC, UT Disc Golf, Midwestern State U, Flying Goombas and Hill Country Hyzers. We acknowledge we had a few glitches last year with our staff lunch process and hope that won’t dissuade you from staffing again in 2024. We promise a better delivery plan with grill master Adam Hernandez coming on board to manage staff meals along with last year’s lunch volunteers Kirsten Dorrier and Bailey Hahn returning to assist all three days. If your club would like to staff in 2024 please contact Neal Dambra at theopendgc@nealdambra.com for compensation and other important details.

Let’s talk SecuRRity. For the fourth year in a row Chris Ware and the boys from Round Rock’s Double R DGC supplemented the DGPT crew with additional gallery control and general security. We always appreciate having RR involved and look forward to having them back in 2024 as the event has potential to draw even more spectators. We’d also like to thank SecuRRity member Mike Ware for providing off season storage on his private property for some of our course equipment and assets. 

The true heroes of the 2023 event were the tireless shuttle cart drivers who made several hundred trips taking competitors from the Austin Blacks Rugby parking area to hole 1 and back each day. A ginormous thanks goes to drivers Jerry Chilé Perez, Clyde Junior Smith, Ben Cates, Jackson Cates, Jim Deeken. Others like Ed Gonzales, Bob Ennis, Grant Wise, Vinnie Miller and Ernie Motton filled in when the regular drivers needed a much deserved break. Since shuttling will not be necessary in 2024 we look forward to having these staff members talents and time available for other event enhancing staffing needs this coming March. The 100+ staff hours we will gain back by eliminating shuttling will go a long way as we expect even larger galleries this coming March.

On that note we’d like to announce Jackson Cates will be Assistant TD for The Open at Austin 2024. As an astute observer of the game and outstanding young player, Jackson also has been involved in developing the new course layout along with direct on-site input and approval from DGPT CEO and Director, Jeff Spring.  We truly appreciate the early visit and involvement of the DGPT as we continue to develop this venue. Knowing our exact “marching orders” in a timely fashion makes our work and planning much more efficient and cost effective as we move forward. Going forward, the DGPT will be taking a larger role in the Austin event as they provide increased direction and consultation and become the driving force in procuring national disc golf related sponsorship. 

Finally, Jim Hudson and I would like to send our appreciation to Alice Cates, Karen Dorrier and Alan Ekery who administered the starting hole and scoring responsibilities from dawn until dusk everyday. 

Now, for the award you can only win once: Jim Deeken has been named The Open DGC 2023 Volunteer of The Year for his cumulative event service since 2021. Jim, a retired high school counselor, has shown dedication to the project from beginning to end with his generally calming demeanor, tireless work ethic, and exemplary communication skills. Jim was a huge asset in a year that saw many new, and some unexpected, challenges. Jim will serve as our logistics coordinator in 2024 as we look forward to a smooth running event with his detailed management of critical non-competition aspects of the tournament. Congratulations to Mr. Deeken.